Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
“You stay ready so you don't have to get ready.” - Q&A with Running Backs Coach Calvin Lowry
3/15/2024 9:00:00 AM | Football
The former Tennessee Titan safety is excited to be back in the mid-state.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Calvin Lowry's candy jar only has candies in it that start with the letter S. A bag of Skittles. A pair of Starburst. A mini-Snickers bar. But the Blue Raiders' running backs coach says that fact is only a coincidence.
"It's just a mixed bag," Lowry said. "There's really no rhyme or reason to it. I really let my boys, Deuce and Clay, pick it out. What they like, most guys are going to like as well."
The candy jar has a much bigger purpose than just offering a treat to his running backs when they stop by Lowry said. As a coach that almost always works with his office door open, Lowry wants to invite everyone inside with a "conversation starter". The candy jar, loved by players and coaches alike, brings everyone in.
"Open door policy, it's not just the running backs," Lowry said. "It's not receivers, quarterbacks, it's everybody on the team... We're trying to play catch-up really, really fast to build that trust. We call it speed of trust, how fast can we go and do that."
The former safety is pumped to be meeting Blue Raiders in the mid-state, which he said embraced him after he was picked in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans. He even still owns the house he bought as a player in Nashville's Bellevue neighborhood, though he hasn't lived in that home in many years.
A veteran position coach at the G5 level, having been on Phillip Montgomery's staff at Tulsa as the wide receivers coach, among other responsibilities, Lowry knows the value of building a family atmosphere in a position room. Having his own room of guys is one of the things he missed during his year at Penn State as an analyst between his time at Tulsa and joining Mason's staff in Murfreesboro. He's made sure that his running backs have already been to his new house in Murfreesboro and met his family. But that family atmosphere doesn't just build trust or offer a resource to players that might be far away from family, Lowry said. It also is the coach serving as an example for his players.
"I have the expectations, the standard, the dos and the don'ts of becoming a man," Lowry said. "I use this seat that I sit in and the position that I hold to help these young men set a foundation for when they leave the confines of Middle Tennessee State."
Lowry sat down with GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton earlier this spring to chat about his path back to leading a position room, his NFL memories from his time as a Titan, his experience going back to his alma mater last year as coach, rather than a letterman and transitioning to coaching running backs.
The conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for space and clarity.
--
Why was Middle Tennessee the right place for you to go after a year as an analyst at your alma mater, Penn State?
It was a way for me to get back on the grass. There's always rumblings, whether they'll make it so that analysts can coach or things like that. There's a lot of rules that go along with that. Coach Mason called me out of the blue when he was going through the hiring process. And we talked for about an hour, right before he got the job. He said he would keep me in the loop and then it just kind of went dormant there. I'm assuming there's a lot of pieces in the puzzle that he's trying to put together. Then I did the official interview I want to say January 8th when we had gotten done with our bowl game, via zoom. And he called me the next morning and hired me.
For me personally, this is my second go around in the area. I played for the Titans from 06-08. My wife is from Clarksville, Tenn. and still has some family from over there, so this is home really for both of us. I actually still have my house up in the Bellevue area in Nashville. It's a unique journey for sure. When I left high school, I went to Penn State. When I left Penn State, I went to Tennessee. The journey has come full circle. I went back to Penn State. Now I'm back in Tennessee.
Tell me about your time with the Titans. That's where you played the longest when you were in the NFL. You obviously had some affinity for the area, keeping your house and all.
It's surreal. I had that first moment of awe. You go through preseason, you get drafted there, but that first official game, we're playing against the Jets. You're walking out with that shield on the back of your helmet and on your jersey. To be one of those one percenters that made it. I'm always going to have a profound respect for Nashville, the Tennessee community, because they had a vested interest in me when I was a player. As a player, they thought of me so highly to draft me out of college. I like to tell people you have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do getting drafted to the NFL.
It's Southern Hospitality. It's easy living, back then it was. Now, the traffic is unreal. It's surreal being back in the South. For so long, I was in middle America, between Oklahoma and Texas. To be back over here, it's special. I don't know, I guess it's just proximity to family.
What was it like going back to Happy Valley as a coach? What did you learn from your time on James Franklin's staff?
Going back in the coaching profession is much different than going back as a player or as an alum or a letterman. The professionalism that goes into, there's a lot of politics that go into it. There's something special about State College, University Park, that a lot of people don't quite understand. I tried to explain it to my wife and children both alike that there's something special. You can't put your finger on it, you can't verbalize what it is until you're there. Now, they understand what that is.
Going and playing in front of 107,000 people. The whiteout experience. The creamery, the sticky buns. And just the emptiness of when there's no students on campus. There's 55,000 students and when there's no school, the population dwindles to about 20,000 people in the entire town.
It taught me a different level of the differences between even Power 5 to Power 5. There's five-percenters, as I like to call them, that are just different than everybody else. One, because of the money that is brought in, but the expectations that are also expected of a Penn State, an Ohio State, a Michigan, a Georgia, an Alabama, those type of schools that are always winning at that level. The detail that goes into, the professionalism, the organization that goes into it, the number of people to move this organization in a direction was definitely eye-opening to me.
You coached a lot of prolific wideouts at Tulsa, but at MTSU you'll be taking charge of the running back room. What's that transition been like for you so far?
The biggest shift for me is how I watch film. I always used to watch the wide copy, now I'm used to watching the butt copy. My ultimate goal in this profession is to be a head coach. That's what I yearn for, that's what I dream for, that's what I work for. But in order to do that, you have to become a coordinator, an offensive coordinator. Me getting tighter to the box is now understanding quarterback play, offensive line play, and how it all works in uniform to accomplish one singular goal.
And now I get to focus on just one guy instead of three or four guys at a time. You can only imagine what personalities of coaching wide receivers is like. Now, I get to focus on running back. That is refreshing. But I'm excited for the journey ahead, the challenges that will come. Especially having the year off as an analyst, not having my own room. Now I have my own room again, so I have the expectations, the standard, the dos and the don'ts of becoming a man. I use this seat that sit I in and the position that I hold to help these young men set a foundation for when they leave the confines of Middle Tennessee State.
The quote Derek Mason had in your hiring announcement release was that you knew where our running backs have been, where they're going and what they need to do to get there. It's a running back room that has some depth, with a lot of guys coming back that have contributed in recent seasons. What do you like about where they've been and where do you hope they can get to by the time that we're kicking off in August?
I don't say this lightly, I don't take this lightly, but why can't a running back from Middle Tennessee State be a Doak Walker Award Winner? And then once we have one, why does it ever have to leave the confines of this university? I don't say that boasting or bragging, those are the expectations that I set for myself as coach and I hold my guys to that standard of being the best running back core, not only in this conference, but in this country.
And it can be done. Our first standard as an offense is a physical, downhill running game. The guys are excited about that. They've embraced it. There's going to be a lot on their plate from the pass protection aspect of it. In the run game, if you're a running back, you want the ball in your hands. So, we're going to give you that opportunity. We're going to go through spring ball, we'll see who the best guys are and those will be the ones we're going to rock with.
It's a 12-game season. You fight for 13, playing in a conference championship and you're playing for 14 (for a bowl), 15 or 16 if you make it to the playoffs. Very rarely in this day and age are you going to make it through an entire season with one guy. You're one play away from being on the grass, so you always prepare yourself as a starter. Therefore, when it happens, you're not surprised. You stay ready so you don't have to get ready.
If one guy emerges himself in front of everybody else, that's going to be the guy that we ride. Then we have to have a backup, then we have to have a backup for the backup. But if we have four guys that can play ball, we'll play four guys early, that way we last longer as the season goes on. You're always around contact. It's a little different on the edges. Receivers, you can find 3-4 guys and roll with them the entire season. When you're in that box, the banging takes a toll on the body.
"It's just a mixed bag," Lowry said. "There's really no rhyme or reason to it. I really let my boys, Deuce and Clay, pick it out. What they like, most guys are going to like as well."
The candy jar has a much bigger purpose than just offering a treat to his running backs when they stop by Lowry said. As a coach that almost always works with his office door open, Lowry wants to invite everyone inside with a "conversation starter". The candy jar, loved by players and coaches alike, brings everyone in.
"Open door policy, it's not just the running backs," Lowry said. "It's not receivers, quarterbacks, it's everybody on the team... We're trying to play catch-up really, really fast to build that trust. We call it speed of trust, how fast can we go and do that."
The former safety is pumped to be meeting Blue Raiders in the mid-state, which he said embraced him after he was picked in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans. He even still owns the house he bought as a player in Nashville's Bellevue neighborhood, though he hasn't lived in that home in many years.
A veteran position coach at the G5 level, having been on Phillip Montgomery's staff at Tulsa as the wide receivers coach, among other responsibilities, Lowry knows the value of building a family atmosphere in a position room. Having his own room of guys is one of the things he missed during his year at Penn State as an analyst between his time at Tulsa and joining Mason's staff in Murfreesboro. He's made sure that his running backs have already been to his new house in Murfreesboro and met his family. But that family atmosphere doesn't just build trust or offer a resource to players that might be far away from family, Lowry said. It also is the coach serving as an example for his players.
"I have the expectations, the standard, the dos and the don'ts of becoming a man," Lowry said. "I use this seat that I sit in and the position that I hold to help these young men set a foundation for when they leave the confines of Middle Tennessee State."
Lowry sat down with GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton earlier this spring to chat about his path back to leading a position room, his NFL memories from his time as a Titan, his experience going back to his alma mater last year as coach, rather than a letterman and transitioning to coaching running backs.
The conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for space and clarity.
--
Why was Middle Tennessee the right place for you to go after a year as an analyst at your alma mater, Penn State?
It was a way for me to get back on the grass. There's always rumblings, whether they'll make it so that analysts can coach or things like that. There's a lot of rules that go along with that. Coach Mason called me out of the blue when he was going through the hiring process. And we talked for about an hour, right before he got the job. He said he would keep me in the loop and then it just kind of went dormant there. I'm assuming there's a lot of pieces in the puzzle that he's trying to put together. Then I did the official interview I want to say January 8th when we had gotten done with our bowl game, via zoom. And he called me the next morning and hired me.
For me personally, this is my second go around in the area. I played for the Titans from 06-08. My wife is from Clarksville, Tenn. and still has some family from over there, so this is home really for both of us. I actually still have my house up in the Bellevue area in Nashville. It's a unique journey for sure. When I left high school, I went to Penn State. When I left Penn State, I went to Tennessee. The journey has come full circle. I went back to Penn State. Now I'm back in Tennessee.
Tell me about your time with the Titans. That's where you played the longest when you were in the NFL. You obviously had some affinity for the area, keeping your house and all.
It's surreal. I had that first moment of awe. You go through preseason, you get drafted there, but that first official game, we're playing against the Jets. You're walking out with that shield on the back of your helmet and on your jersey. To be one of those one percenters that made it. I'm always going to have a profound respect for Nashville, the Tennessee community, because they had a vested interest in me when I was a player. As a player, they thought of me so highly to draft me out of college. I like to tell people you have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do getting drafted to the NFL.
It's Southern Hospitality. It's easy living, back then it was. Now, the traffic is unreal. It's surreal being back in the South. For so long, I was in middle America, between Oklahoma and Texas. To be back over here, it's special. I don't know, I guess it's just proximity to family.
What was it like going back to Happy Valley as a coach? What did you learn from your time on James Franklin's staff?
Going back in the coaching profession is much different than going back as a player or as an alum or a letterman. The professionalism that goes into, there's a lot of politics that go into it. There's something special about State College, University Park, that a lot of people don't quite understand. I tried to explain it to my wife and children both alike that there's something special. You can't put your finger on it, you can't verbalize what it is until you're there. Now, they understand what that is.
Going and playing in front of 107,000 people. The whiteout experience. The creamery, the sticky buns. And just the emptiness of when there's no students on campus. There's 55,000 students and when there's no school, the population dwindles to about 20,000 people in the entire town.
It taught me a different level of the differences between even Power 5 to Power 5. There's five-percenters, as I like to call them, that are just different than everybody else. One, because of the money that is brought in, but the expectations that are also expected of a Penn State, an Ohio State, a Michigan, a Georgia, an Alabama, those type of schools that are always winning at that level. The detail that goes into, the professionalism, the organization that goes into it, the number of people to move this organization in a direction was definitely eye-opening to me.
You coached a lot of prolific wideouts at Tulsa, but at MTSU you'll be taking charge of the running back room. What's that transition been like for you so far?
The biggest shift for me is how I watch film. I always used to watch the wide copy, now I'm used to watching the butt copy. My ultimate goal in this profession is to be a head coach. That's what I yearn for, that's what I dream for, that's what I work for. But in order to do that, you have to become a coordinator, an offensive coordinator. Me getting tighter to the box is now understanding quarterback play, offensive line play, and how it all works in uniform to accomplish one singular goal.
And now I get to focus on just one guy instead of three or four guys at a time. You can only imagine what personalities of coaching wide receivers is like. Now, I get to focus on running back. That is refreshing. But I'm excited for the journey ahead, the challenges that will come. Especially having the year off as an analyst, not having my own room. Now I have my own room again, so I have the expectations, the standard, the dos and the don'ts of becoming a man. I use this seat that sit I in and the position that I hold to help these young men set a foundation for when they leave the confines of Middle Tennessee State.
The quote Derek Mason had in your hiring announcement release was that you knew where our running backs have been, where they're going and what they need to do to get there. It's a running back room that has some depth, with a lot of guys coming back that have contributed in recent seasons. What do you like about where they've been and where do you hope they can get to by the time that we're kicking off in August?
I don't say this lightly, I don't take this lightly, but why can't a running back from Middle Tennessee State be a Doak Walker Award Winner? And then once we have one, why does it ever have to leave the confines of this university? I don't say that boasting or bragging, those are the expectations that I set for myself as coach and I hold my guys to that standard of being the best running back core, not only in this conference, but in this country.
And it can be done. Our first standard as an offense is a physical, downhill running game. The guys are excited about that. They've embraced it. There's going to be a lot on their plate from the pass protection aspect of it. In the run game, if you're a running back, you want the ball in your hands. So, we're going to give you that opportunity. We're going to go through spring ball, we'll see who the best guys are and those will be the ones we're going to rock with.
It's a 12-game season. You fight for 13, playing in a conference championship and you're playing for 14 (for a bowl), 15 or 16 if you make it to the playoffs. Very rarely in this day and age are you going to make it through an entire season with one guy. You're one play away from being on the grass, so you always prepare yourself as a starter. Therefore, when it happens, you're not surprised. You stay ready so you don't have to get ready.
If one guy emerges himself in front of everybody else, that's going to be the guy that we ride. Then we have to have a backup, then we have to have a backup for the backup. But if we have four guys that can play ball, we'll play four guys early, that way we last longer as the season goes on. You're always around contact. It's a little different on the edges. Receivers, you can find 3-4 guys and roll with them the entire season. When you're in that box, the banging takes a toll on the body.
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